I'll Follow You Into The Dark
by TreesAndSeas
Summary: The world is a different place now. Everyone needs someone to keep them sane. M rated DarylXOC
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! This is my first Walking Dead story so bear with me if it's a bit rocky. I love suggestions for the story and reviews so read and write away!**

* * *

The world went to shit in the dead of summer, right around the time of year where your shirt sticks to your back after a few minute outside and people joke about eggs frying on sidewalks. It didn't seem like anyone joked much anymore. Samantha Waverly had lived a normal twenty years before the dead started walking. She lived at home with her mother and father, went to a community college in their little Georgian town, and had a go nowhere job at a local bowling alley to help pay for classes. If the world hadn't gone on she would be transferring to a university and moving out and onward. But the world had.

Everything was very quick in the early days, panic and confusion ruled the streets. That's how Samantha ended up with Ed, Carol, and Sophia crammed into her car and how the four soon ended up at a quarry with the others. Samantha was constantly at Carol's house, tutoring Sophia and helping Carol out around the house while Ed was out. When she had thrown her few supplies into her little Nissan she had driven straight to their house to find that their car wouldn't start. Her car was now being unloaded, camps were being set up, and she felt so very alone.

Due to her lack of tent Samantha slept in her car, curled up in the backseat, in between the tent that housed Ed, Carol, and Sophia and the Dixon's tent. She was lucky enough to be parked in the shade of a big tree so that her car wasn't boiling by the end of the day. She refused to roll the windows down when she slept. At night she curled up in her car and tried not to cry but during the day she worked. Everyone seemed to have a job. Most of the guys were on watch for walkers or on hunting duty while the girls cleaned or did laundry. Samantha thought the whole end of the world things must have reenforced the glass ceiling or something. Samantha's job was to tutor Sophia and Carl, who still had some school books. Samantha liked it, she had thought about going into teaching.

When she had little gaps between teaching, eating, or sleeping, Samantha would lay in her car, her feet hanging out of the open door, and read. She had brought some with her, for some reason her mind had decided that in an apocalypse you need good reading material to survive, and after she read those she would go to Dale and read some from the RV. It seemed like some of the last bits of normalcy she had left.

"Whatcha reading?" A gruff voice came from outside the car. She put the book face down on her chest and propped up her elbows to see Merle Dixon leering. "Why don't you put that book down and come back to my tent? Betcha you'll have a better time there than reading some stupid book."

Samantha picked the book back up and laid down again, "Nah thanks Merle. I'm good."

"Come on, Sugar, you know you wan-" He was cut off by another rough voice.

"Merle cut it out. Don't you got someplace to be?" Daryl Dixon didn't speak much and Samantha was surprised to hear him. He got up and stuck her head out at the two men. While she always seemed to see to much of Merle she had never gotten much of a good look at his brother. He was tall and muscular, wearing a shirt that had the sleeves ripped off. His face was handsome but rough with five o'clock shadow and a scowl directed towards his brother. She wondered how old he was, probably in his early thirties. She realized she was staring a looked away. She heard Merle scoff and watched his boots as he walked away. She looked back up when Daryl spoke again. "Sorry about that."

"Not your fault that your brother is an asshole." She realized that might not have been the best thing to say after she said it. "Sorry. But thank you."

She smiled up at him. He just nodded and walked away. She watched him go off into the woods before she turned back to her book.

"Oh god it's so hot I think I'm going to die." Samantha complained to Amy. The two girls sat at the table in Dale's RV where Dale, Amy, and her older sister Andrea stayed. Samantha and Amy had become close friends. Amy was only three years younger than Samantha and it felt nice for the both of them to have someone who they could relate to.

Amy smiled but didn't look up from her magazine. "If you die we'll have to shoot you in the face."

"Why do you keep reading that? It's like three months old." Samantha wondered if any of the stars on that magazine were still alive or if they were somewhere trying to survive like them.

"It makes me feel normal to read it because I used to read these at home." That shut Sam up. She knew the feeling. "I saw you talking to the Dixon's yesterday."

"Yeah. Merle was bothering me but Daryl came up and got him to leave." Sam acted like it was no big deal but she had been thinking about Daryl ever since. She felt like a school girl with a crush. "Daryl's kinda cute."

"Oh my god do you like a Dixon?" Amy finally put her magazine down and looked at Sam, her mouth open with a smile. Sam blushed and laughed a bit.

"I wouldn't say I like him. I don't know him at all. I just think he's handsome."

"Oh hes handsome now?" Amy laughed. "He was just cute a second ago."

"Shut up" Sam said but both girls were giggling. "Besides he's like thirty. He's at least ten years older than me."

"Does that still matter? I assumed the whole dead walking thing brought about some changes." Amy deadpanned. "Are you going to talk to him again?"

"We live next to each other, Amy. I'm sure I'll talk to him again. Stop looking into it."

Amy rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath something Sam couldn't hear.

It rained that night. The little drops of water pounded off Samantha's car and every once and a while she could swear she heard footsteps. The sound made her tighten her grip on her knife, a gift from her father when things started to get bad. She had the knife and an old softball bat but no gun to protect herself with. Her parents had been strongly against guns. Sam doubted that they would have even had the knife if it hadn't been her grandfathers war knife. They hadn't been prepared and they paid the price. She closed her eyes and tried to remember carefully what her parents looked like, like she did every night. Her father was tall with broad shoulders and short black hair and one pierced ear. Her mother looked a lot like Sam did, a bit on the short side with pale green eyes and brownish blonde hair but her mother had a graceful way about her that Sam had never been able to duplicate. She knew that eventually she would forget which ear her father had pierced and what her mother's voice sounded like. Sam promised herself that one day she would go back and grab a picture. All she had from them was the knife and their wedding rings on a chain around her neck. With lonely thoughts she felt herself drift off to sleep. Right before she slipped under she could have sworn she heard footsteps outside.


	2. Chapter 2

Days pass slowly at the small quarry camp. Two months pass, two long, hot months before there's a buzz on the old radio. It's just a scratch of a voice, barely anything but it becomes the talk of the camp. Carol and Lori gossip about it, Shane and Dale talk about the possibility of survivors in the city, Everyone seems to be talking about something. Sam tries not to let hope get to her head and remains in her usual spot of her backseat. Normally Amy and Glenn would sit with her and argue about which of her limited supply of CD's to play but today Glenn is on a trip into a nearby town with T-Dog, Merle, Andrea, and Morales and Amy has a cold and is sleeping it off in the RV. Sam doesn't mind it. Although she's come to love her new friends she can't help but feel claustrophobic in camp at times.

After some time of reading in solitude Samantha feels the someone else around her. She looks up from her book and sure enough Daryl Dixon is sitting outside her car, his back resting against her gray Nissan. For the past two months whenever Sam was sitting alone in her car and Daryl wasn't out hunting they would sit together and say a few words. Mostly it was Sam talking and Daryl making noises to show approval and disapproval. She could have sworn she saw him smile once.

"Hot today." Sam said, going back to her reading. Daryl grunted in agreement. "It should cool

soon. It's almost September."

"How do you know?" Daryl asked. Sam reached over to the drivers seat and grabbed her backpack. Edging herself out of the car, she sat down next to him and put her bag in her lap and rummaged around in it before pulling out a small red planner. She opened it to the page she had book marked.

"See." She pointed to the square that said the current date. "The twenty third of August."

Flipping back Daryl saw two months worth of X's covering previous days and the farther he flipped back he saw little notes written on the dates, school assignments due, plans with friends, test dates and actual dates. It was easy to forget that the others in camp had lives before all this started. They had jobs and friends and families once. Now they had whatever they could carry in their cars and eventually, when the gas ran out, whatever they could carry on their backs. Daryl closed the planner and handed it back to Sam. She put it back into her bag and started looking for something else in it. When she wasn't looking Daryl watched her. He thought she was pretty. Her hair was down today and he could see her sunburned ears peeking out of her brown waves. A slight pinkness from the sun covered her soft exposed skin. He liked the way her face lit up when she found whatever she was looking for in her bag.

Sam helped up the deck of cards she had retrieved from the bottom of her bag. "Want to play?"

Daryl spent the next hour trying to teach Sam how to play Texas Hold 'em. They played until Sam finally beat him and he quit.

"I gotta go." He grumbled and stood up.

Sam extended her hand and he helped her to her feet. She slung her backpack over her shoulder. With a smirk she mocked him, "Sore loser, huh?"

"No. I gotta check the traps for food. Unless you don't want to eat tonight?" He shot back defensively.

Sam rolled her eyes at him. "Oh calm down. I'm just teasing. Besides I want to clean up before dinner. I'm going down to the water."

She walked to the back of the car, opening the trunk and taking out a towel. Daryl looked down at the ground, his arms crossed. "Be careful."

The trunk slammed and Sam gestured to her knife on her hip. "Always am."

Sam honestly always was careful. She always looked both ways before crossing a street, she always waited twenty minutes after eating to swim, she never talked down to her elders. Even as she stripped down she kept her knife in her hand, a hair brush in the other. She left her clothes in a pile on the sand and slowly stepped into the water. The coolness of the water was a nice contrast from the heat of the Georgian sun. Bathing in the water of the quarry was one of the few joys still left in life. Sam could just lay in the water and unwind from the stresses that she was now forced to face. She scrubbed and brushed her hair before scrubbing down every inch of her body, freeing it from the layer of dust and dirt that seemed permanently ingrained in her skin.

When Sam was little her family lived by the beach in California and every Sunday her family would go down to the water and play. That's where she learned to swim, where she learned to love water. Thinking about it made her miss her parents and it made her wonder how hard California had been hit, if any of her old friends were still out there somewhere.

From the corner of her eye she saw movement back on shore. Sam turned as the walker turned, spotting her. The walker, once a man, now with gray skin and bulging eyes had dried blood on his chin and shirt which was torn, showing cuts all over his chest. He began his tortured shuffle to the water, to Sam. He groaned and snarled and out stretched his arms towards her. Sam tried her best to run back to shore, although running in water is quite a task. With her knife at the ready she reached knee level in the cool water and charged for the walker on the sand. Her hand was raised, knife ready to strike his eye when an arrow pierced the walkers skull. Sam jumped back and watched as the now fully dead man fell onto her pile of clothes. Daryl emerged from the tree line, slinging his crossbow back on his shoulder. He jogged over to Sam and put his boot clad foot on the fallen walkers shoulder, grabbing the arrow and tugging it out of it's skull. He wiped the arrow off on his pants and placed it back with the others.

"Thanks." Sam said to him, still a little startled. He nodded to her, not looking up from the ground. "Not that I'm not grateful but why are you out here?"

Daryl held up a rope with squirrels hanging from it. "Told you. I was checking the traps."

Now Sam nodded, looking down at the walker. "Well there goes that pair of clothes."

"Here." Daryl handed her the squirrel rope. He placed his crossbow on the ground and removed his shirt, handing it to her. It was sweaty and stained and fit her like the shortest dress he'd ever seen but it covered Sam's naked body enough that Daryl could look at her and not make himself feel sick. He _had_ been checking the traps, he would admit that. But when he caught a peek of her undressing he couldn't help but watch her as she stripped down and entered the water, watch the water shine off her breasts in the setting sun. She had a beautiful body and Daryl couldn't help but look. Then he had seen her tense up and rush to shore. When he saw the walker her sprang into action before realizing it would give away the fact that he had been watching her. Standing next to her he was ashamed but at least with her covered he could try and look at her.

They walked back to camp together, Daryl leading the way. Sam followed close behind. It was dark now and the darkness made the woods more unsettling. In the distance, through the trees, she could see the shadow of her car, illuminated by one of the camp fires. Sam didn't want to eat. She wanted to lay in the back of her car and sleep. When they reach her car she goes to the front right wheel and picks up her keys, unlocking the car. Daryl leans his crossbow against her passenger door and takes the squirrels to the group. She hears someone, Lori or Carol, ask where she is and Daryl say that she's in her car. Sam pokes her head up to the window and waves to them before laying back down. She hears the crunch of her grass and leaves leading up to her car. Daryl leans his head down to look at Sam, his forearm still resting on the top of the car. He opens his mouth to say something but after looking at her he forgets what it was. He follows her legs up, her legs are toned and cream colored. He can see the curve of her ass poking out from his shirt and his eyes linger there before moving back up her body, he stops once more the focus on the exposed side of her breast through the arm hole of the shirt, to her face.

She isn't looking at his face though. Her eyes are focused on his bare chest. Daryl's body is tan and strong, she watches his shuffle on his feet and his arm muscles tighten and flex. His chest is covered in scars, some tiny some bigger. Sam wanted to run her hands over them. Finally their eyes meet. They stare at each other for a minute. Sam opens her mouth and licks her bottom lip then suddenly Daryl is on her. His lips hover above hers for a second and she can feel his breath on her face before finally their lips meet. It feels like electricity coursing through them everywhere they touch. Her hands are tangled in his hair while his grip her hips tightly. Their tongues dance together and she pushes her hips up to his. She can feel him on her inner thigh and she moans.

He bites her lip and she breaths out, "Daryl."

Her voice is like cold water to him and he lifts himself off of her, suddenly disgusted with himself. How could he kiss her and touch her when not that long ago he had spied on her as she undressed like a peeping Tom? He can't help but look at the contrast between the two of them; she is soft and warm and clean and kind and he is everything but that.

"I can't do this." He tells her. "I ain't gonna do this."

"What's wrong?" Sam asks. She puts her hand on his arm but he pushes it away.

Daryl practically spits out the words. "I ain't gonna do this with you."

Sam winces away from him. Daryl feels guilty but knows he'll feel worse if he continues so he gets out of the car and closes the door. His hand rests on the handle and he knows Sam is watching him. He takes his hand off the car and walks back to his tent. Before he enters he hears Sam lock her car.

Laying in the tent, staring at it's ceiling, Daryl feels more like a jackass than he has in a long time.


	3. Chapter 3

"So if you divide by x what do you get?" Sam watches as Carl and Sophia scribble out math problems on their little pieces of paper. She remembers being their age and hating math.

"I got three?" Sophia says it like it's a question and looks over to Carl's paper with a confused look.

"Really? I got nine over four." Carl furrows his brow and Sam laughs a little.

"Sophia is right. It is three." She gives Sophia a smile then turns to Carl's paper. "You subtracted wrong in the step before, see? We'll go over more of it tomorrow. Good lesson today guys."

The two children grab their books and ran off with smiles to go play. Shane walked passed Carl, ruffling his hair a bit before sitting down with Sam.

"Afternoon Samantha." He said, giving her a smile.

"Good afternoon Officer, what seems to be the trouble?" She smiled back at him.

"The trouble is your sitting here all alone. How are you feeling? You didn't come to dinner last night. Hope you're not getting what Amy had." Shane had a way of making you feel like he was genuinely concerned about you and your feelings. Sam liked it.

"I was just a little shaken up. I had a run in with a walker when I cleaning myself up down at the water."

Shane's face became serious. "A walker? What happened?"

"I was cleaning off and I saw it on shore and it started to come towards me so I tried to go up and get it while it was on shore but Daryl helped me out and shot it with his crossbow. There was only one around."

"Why was Daryl down there if you were washing up?" Sam reminded Shane of his little sister, God rest her soul, and Daryl reminded him of a common redneck criminal. He wasn't a big fan of the Dixon boys.

"He was checking the squirrel traps." Sam left out the part about her and Daryl making out in the back of her car. She thought about telling Amy or Glenn but they didn't think very highly of the Dixon's either.

Shane raised an eyebrow at her. "I'd watch out for him if I was you. I know his type and I've locked a few of that type up before."

"I'll be on high alert." Sam said dryly. "But anyway. The walker. It's the first one I've seen in a few months but that doesn't mean they aren't moving away from the city and up here. I mean, Atlanta's a ghost town. They're looking for food."

"You're right. What we need is to build some-" Shane was cut off by the blaring of a car alarm. A red sports car braked in front of Dale's RV, causing everyone to drop what they were doing and look over. Glenn stepped out of the car. Shane ran over to him. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Glenn tried to explain but all that came out was, "I got a cool car."

Dale and Shane were able to cut the alarm and it was time for Dale to dish out some of the wisdom he was known around camp for, "Now son, while we're all glad you're safe you just put a pin on the map of every walker in the area. Where are the others?"

"Where's Andrea? Is she alright?" Amy rushed Glenn, hugging him tightly as he reassured her the her sister was fine and would be returning soon.

A moment later a moving van rolled up the hill and parked itself behind Glenn's car. Andrea, T-Dog, and Morales came out, each being embraced by their loved ones.

"How did you guys get out of there?" Shane asked them. Everyone at camp thought they were goners. Sam had been ready to mourn Glenn when he left. Each trip into town became more dangerous as they had to venture deeper into the city for supplies.

"New guy saved us." Glenn jerked his head back.

The man walking towards the group was handsome and clean shaven, wearing a police officers uniform with a gun on his hip.

"Dad?" The shout came from behind Sam. Carl took off running towards the man, "Dad!"

Carl ran into the mans arms and the man picked him up. He walked to Lori, who stood, stunned until he was right in front of her. The three Grimes, reunited, cried in each others arms. Sam imagined her dad coming out from the van, or her mom or the guy she had been dating before the world went to shit. No matter how hard she imagined she knew no one would come out. She watched everyone around her and she suddenly felt very alone.

"Where's Merle?" Dale asked. The group tensed instantly.

T-Dog spoke, "We had to leave him. He's on a roof in Atlanta."

"You just left him there?" Sam spoke before she could think. "How can you just leave him there?"

Rick spoke to her in that cop way, "We had to detain him and then there was an incident.

"An_ incident_? How are you going to explain that to his brother?" Sam asked him and she wondered when she became so defensive about the Dixon's. _Last night_, her head told her.

"I'll explain it." T-Dog raised his hand. "I was the one that left him up there. I dropped the key."

Sam knew T-Dog didn't have hate in his heart, he was a sweet man and she knew that he would never leave a person to die on a roof without good reason and Merle probably deserved it. Still, she pitied Merle, even if he was a bastard.

"Disoriented." Rick tried explaining to the group what waking up from a coma was like but Sam couldn't focus. She was positive that if she didn't go now she would pee herself around the fire but she also had always been curious about what being in a coma was like. She waited as long as she could before excusing herself and practically running into the woods, causing a few laughs around the fire.

Sam went just far enough into the woods to where she couldn't see the group before she dropped her pants and did her business. She finished up, feeling relived, and started walking back to the group. A twig snapped behind her and she froze. Turning around slowly she saw no one but heard another twig snap, this time to the left of her. She grabbed her knife and readied herself before turning.

A force hit her head on and pushed her up against a tree, pinning her arms above her head with one arm and grabbing her knife with the other, stabbing it into the tree. Sam tried to scream but all the came out was a small squeak.

"You shouldn't be out here alone." She could feel the hot breath on her face as he said it.

"Daryl?" Sam opened her eyes and struggled against him. "Daryl what the fuck?"

"I told you. Shouldn't be out her alone when all ya got is a knife to protect you." He still held her arms firmly.

"Daryl, you let go of me right now or I'll scream." Sam threatened. Daryl took one of his hands and covered her mouth. He didn't remove it until she had calmed down. When he pulled it away it was wet.

He looked at his hand and then at her and quickly let go. "Why are you cryin'?"

"Because," she grumbled as she wiped her eyes, "You scared me. And being thrown up against a tree hurts."

Daryl felt bad and was reminded of a conversation that Merle and him had back when he first talked to Sam.

_"Why are you stickin up for that bitch?" Merle had asked, his words slurring together with whatever drug he had taken that day. He was sprawled out on his sleeping bag in their tent._

_ "Cause life's hard enough without some shithead like you givin people problems." Daryl wouldn't meet his brothers eyes as they spoke. "And I ain't stickin up for her. I'm lookin out for you, ain't you had enough trouble with cops in your life?"_

_ "Don't waste your time on a girl like that. All uptight with a college education and shit. You ain't good enough for a girl like that anyway. All your gonna do is hurt her." Merle passed out after that, leaving Daryl feeling very lonely._

Sam took a step forward, bumping into Daryl who grasped her arms again, this time gently and for balance. His hands were rough on her arms and even though he had scared her shitless, she still couldn't help but notice how nice and warm they felt.

"I guess I appreciate what you're trying to do even though that was a really fucked up way to do it."

Daryl was cold to her again. "I'm sorry I scared ya. Maybe next time you wont be runnin around the woods alone at night."

Sam nodded, angry. She was pissed and even through that anger she wanted him to kiss her, to throw her against the tree with different intentions. Daryl felt it too, he could see it in her eyes, and oh did he want it. All he had been able to think about the night before was how her body felt under his, how his name sounded on her lips, how good and passionate and wrong it had all been and how he had loved it. He hadn't been able to sleep, his mind had just gone over different scenarios, what would have happened if he had stayed or if he had gone back.

He took a step towards her so his face was only an inch from her. Sam focused on the curve of his lips and prepared herself to feel that electricity again. She never felt it. Daryl pulled her knife out of the tree and handed it to her.

"I should be back at camp tomorrow." She nodded and realized it was her cue to go. She turned without another word, feeling rejection again, and walked back to camp. Sam was sure Daryl was two steps behind her the whole time.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam stood in the doorway of Daryl's tent, watching him rush around, throwing things into a bag. Like he had said the night before, he returned to camp in the late morning of the next day. He had walked in, another squirrel rope on his arm, shouting around for Merle to come help him skin the squirrels. Of course there was no Merle to answer him. Rick had stepped in.

"Daryl, my name is Rick Grimes. There was an incident in Atlanta-"

Daryl cut him off, "Rick Grimes? You got something you wanna tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all. We had to handcuff him to a pipe on a roof."

"It's my fault." T-Dog stepped in. "I dropped the key."

"Why couldn't you pick it up?" Daryl's voice started to sound like a wail.

"I dropped it down a drain on accident." Daryl looked like he was going to swing at T-Dog. "But I put a chain on the door before we left! He could still be up there."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Daryl shouted.

It was Shane's turn to speak. "Wait a second. Are we really going to risk our lives for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?"

"Hey, watch yourself."

"Oh I did, douchebag's what I meant."

"It's not just Merle." Rick told the crowd, "I left a bag of guns from the station. Shot guns, hand guns, lotta ammo too."

That seemed to be the decision maker. It wasn't even an hour later and a group was already almost ready to go. Glenn, Rick, T-Dog, and Daryl were going in and Sam hoped to god that they would be coming out. She had hugged Glenn tightly and told him that when he got back he got to choose what they listened to in her car. He gave her a laugh and went off to see Amy. She hoped it wouldn't be the last time she saw him.

Now Sam stood at the door of Daryl's tent and watched him. Anger radiated off of him.

"I'm sorry about your brother." Sam told him.

Daryl didn't stop rushing about as he spoke, "He's still alive. Nothin can kill Merle 'cept Merle."

"Still, it's pretty awful." Sam said before quietly adding, "You'll be careful, right?"

Finally Daryl stopped and looked at her. She looked small and scared, like she had in the woods the night before. Just a little girl and her knife against the world. Deep in his heart he would be worried about her back at camp while he was gone in the city. In his thirty-two years he had liked girls, wanted girls, but he had never worried about them when he was gone and he had never hated himself as much as he did in the moments where he almost had Sam and then pushed her away. He figured she must be feeling some sort of misplaced affection; he had saved her two days ago and now she was feeling grateful. Mix that with the slim pickings of men around camp and you've got yourself the current situation.

"I'd be more worried 'bout yourself. That little knife ain't gonna do shit against a hoard of walkers." He went over to Merle's sleeping bag and grabbed something from under the pillow and then placed it in Sam's hand. A gun.

"Thank you." Sam stared at the metal in her hand. "But I wouldn't know how to use it. I've never even held a gun before. I mean I get all you really do is pull the trigger but I wouldn't be able to aim to save my life."

"Here." Daryl came up behind her and positioned her arms. She could hear his gruff voice right on her ear. "Straighten your arms but not to stiff. See those little metal bits? Those are your sights. Aim them up with whatever's comin at ya and shoot."

Sam turned her head to face him and gently brushed her lips against his, on accident. "Sorry." She breathed out but she realized she wasn't sorry and pressed her mouth on his, kissing him as deeply as he would allow.

For a moment he let her, he let himself feel this small pleasure before throwing himself into danger. His hands gripped her arms tightly, rough hands on soft skin had never felt so right to him. Once again he stopped himself, before he could go over the edge and fall into her completely. Daryl pushed Sam back and the electricity coursing through the pair was cut off.

"Would you stop doing that?" He shouted at her. A look of hurt passed through her face before it was replaced with anger.

"Stop doing what? Treating you like I want you? Because I do, damn it." Sam admitted to him. "This is just as frustrating for me as it is for you. I've liked you since I met you and now something's happening and you keep throwing the brakes on."

Sam's openness caught Daryl off guard. _I've liked you since I met you._ He played the sentence over and over again in his head. It couldn't be true. She was so good, the way she helped out around camp and her kindness and her beauty. Daryl had it deeply ingrained in him that someone like her could never want someone like him; he was trash from birth and he would end up with trash. He stared down at the ground as she walked out of the tent.

Stopping in the entry way, Sam turned back. "I'm sorry for dropping all that on you before you leave. Just come back safe, okay?"

Later, when Daryl was in the thick of things in Atlanta, he wished he had said goodbye.

It started with a scream. After that it seemed like every corner of the forest had a walker stumbling out of it. Then the single scream turned into many screams.

"Carl!" Lori yelled to her son, lost in the haze of gunfire.

"I got him!" Sam yelled back, running to him. She grabbed his hand and all but dragged him to her car, quickly unlocking the door and throwing the child in before jumping in herself.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit." Sam said rapidly as she turned on the car and opened up the sun roof. Popping out of it like a Jack in the box she positioned her gun, aiming at a walker. Taking a deep breath she pulled the trigger and the walker fell. She was able to take down five walkers before the gun ran out of bullets.

Carol's voice could be heard over the fray. "Sophia? Sophia!"

Sam went down through the sun roof and grabbed her bat. "Carl close the door after me."

Everything seemed sped up. Walkers moved to fast, people moved even faster, sounds blurred together. Samantha reached Sophia and picked her up, she was much lighter than Carl. Turning to run back to the car she came face to face with the rotted flesh of what was once a woman. The walkers arm stretched out to grab her and she could see it's blood stained and broken finger nails. Sam gave Sophia the bat and told her to run to the car. Turning back to the walker, so close to her, she watched it fall. An arrow in it's head. Sam's head whipped to the left and she saw him come out of the trees. He nodded at her and she nodded at him. They didn't see each other again till dawn.


End file.
